The Ultimate Guide to Loyalty Amplifiers

At a time when competition for your customers is higher than ever, loyalty programs are one of the most valuable tools you can invest in.

Getting members to sign up is a challenge on its own, but even once they’re in, excitement can fade over time, leading to less engagement.

This is where loyalty amplifiers can come in and help you achieve your loyalty program goals.

Loyalty amplifiers are exciting and shareable incentives that spark loyalty program engagement and help you meet your loyalty goals like acquisition, onboarding, brand advocacy and more.

Download the 2023 Loyalty Amplifiers Data Study to learn more about boosting your loyalty program engagement with incentives.

From instant win games to UGC contests, and sweepstakes to trivia, loyalty amplifiers incentivize your members by engaging them across their buying journeys to keep them coming back for more.

This guide will take a comprehensive look at loyalty amplifiers that can help you boost loyalty program member engagement.

Sweepstakes

What is a Sweepstakes?

A sweepstakes program offers your customers the chance to win prizes and allows you to collect valuable zero-party data.

Sweepstakes are popular because of their versatility. For example, sweepstakes entrants register for a chance to win, with one or more winners selected at random either throughout or at the end of the incentive period.  

That versatility is apparent because sweepstakes enable you to integrate the experience for your customers in various formats across multiple channels, including social hashtags and text-to-enter incentives.

The best part for your brand is sweepstakes entrants provide you with a plethora of insights that solidify customer relationships and encourage frequent engagement.

Offering various sweepstakes and integrating the experience across various loyalty programs will elevate your customer engagement.

Loyalty goals that sweepstakes help your brand achieve:

• Drive new customer acquisition: Eighty-eight percent of consumers are likely to join your loyalty program if you offer them an incentive like a chance to win a prize by entering a sweepstakes.

• Drive sales: Nearly 80% of consumers said they are likely to make purchases with a brand in exchange for rewards and incentives that could also be used at other brands.

• Point burn: Consider that 74% of consumers agree that loyalty program rewards often feel unattainable, they require making too many purchases, require too many points and take too long to earn. Create attainable rewards using sweepstakes because nearly 70% of consumers are likely to redeem smaller amounts of loyalty program points in exchange for rewards like the chance to win a prize by entering a sweepstakes.

Sweepstakes Examples:

• Redbox Perks: Redbox’s Summer and Winter Spin–a twice-year program created to engage Redbox Perks members. When Perks members access their Redbox Perks accounts, they receive a game board and various incentivized activities. Members earn Instant Win Game plays and sweepstakes entries when they complete each of the activities.
• Alaska Airlines Go Anywhere: This sweepstakes aimed at driving new member registrations and growing the company’s CRM database.​ New and existing Mileage Plan members were invited to enter for a chance to win a grand prize—100,000 miles to go anywhere Alaska Airlines and its partners fly.​

Learn more about the benefits of adding sweepstakes to your loyalty program.

Instant Wins

What is an Instant Win?

Instant Win loyalty amplifiers drive repeat loyalty engagement because they allow consumers a chance at immediate gratification. You can tailor instant win incentives around engagement and repeat visits.

Instant win loyalty amplifiers include things like turnkey games such as spin-to-win, scratch-to-reveal, animated reveals and video-based engagements that help your brand from an engagement and loyalty perspective. 

They provide entrants with a chance of a “winning moment.” That alluring factor can entice consumers to join your loyalty program or reward existing members.

If your loyalty program members participate in an instant win game, it also allows you to glean valuable customer insights that can be tailored toward future communications.

Loyalty goals that instant wins help your brand achieve:

• Drive new customer acquisition: Ninety percent of consumers agree they’re more likely to engage with a brand if it offers incentivized engagements. An instant win loyalty amplifier as part of your loyalty program gives your members a chance at instant gratification.
• Drive sales: Fifty-seven percent of consumers have made a first-time purchase with a brand as a result of participating in an incentivized engagement. Consumers who participate in an incentivized engagement like an instant win are drawn to your loyalty program and are highly likely to make a first purchase with your brand.

Instant Win Examples:

• Nike Factory Store Instant Win: Customers checked in on their mobile devices at Nike Factory Store locations to play for a chance to instantly win Nike gift cards. Win or lose, all participants received a $10 digital coupon they could immediately use toward an in-store purchase.
• Cap’N Crunch Quest: Shoppers check in on their phones at Dollar General stores to “explore” six virtual islands on the mobile-first site. Each island they visit gives them another chance to win a $100 General gift card. Plus, consumers receive a product coupon just for participating.

Learn more about how instant wins can elevate your loyalty program engagement.

Trivia

What is a Trivia Program?

A trivia program attracts interest and excites your loyalty program members. Members participate in friendly competitions and share their results.

To keep your trivia programs fresh, change the questions on a daily or weekly basis to increase the frequency of participation.  

Besides trivia, you can also use polls and profile quizzes in conjunction with a sweepstakes and/or instant win game to educate consumers about content relevant to a brand.

Trivia excites consumers so when you’re onboarding new members, it fulfills a key loyalty goal for you. 

Loyalty goals that trivia helps your brand achieve:

• Onboarding: When asked which activities within a loyalty program would most excite consumers to learn about new products and/or loyalty program benefits, 71% said polls and surveys while nearly 50% said games (e.g., trivia, personality quizzes, customized games).
• Education: In exchange for an incentive, 66% of consumers are likely to provide brands with more personal information and preferences to better personalize their loyalty program experience. This shows the potential impact that incentives have on consumers’ willingness to share personal data.

Trivia Examples:

• Miller Lite 2-Minute Drill: This was aimed at giving NFL fans a second screen activity during Sunday games to keep the brand top-of-mind all season. Every Sunday on the hour from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET, NFL fans could play ‘2-minute trivia drills’ at bars and restaurants by answering football-related questions for a chance to win national and team-specific sweepstakes prizes.​
• Johnson & Johnson Care Club: Care Club is a healthy-living lifestyle loyalty program built around value-add information and insight coupled with Johnson & Johnson products. This innovative portfolio program encompasses 26 Johnson & Johnson brands. Members earn points for product purchases, reviewing products, taking polls about product usage in their lives and personalization actions that help define the program experience.

Learn more about how trivia helps onboard and educate your loyalty program members.

Gift With Purchase

What is Gift With Purchase?

A gift with purchase loyalty amplifier elevates your loyalty program because it entices consumers to look at your brand instead of the competition. Gift with purchase programs can be guaranteed rewards, cash, offers or charitable donations.

Offering a free gift certainly helps keep your brand top of mind among consumers. Consumers receive a gift with purchase when they buy a specific product or spend a certain amount of money.

Loyalty goals that gift with purchase helps your brand achieve:

• Drive sales: Ninety percent of consumers agree they’re more likely to engage with a brand if it offers incentivized engagements.
• Drive new customer acquisition: Our Customer Engagement and Loyalty Survey found that 85% of consumers would join a brand’s loyalty program to receive a gift with a purchase. This stat shows that a gift with purchase program can increase customer engagement and loyalty program enrollment.

Gift with Purchase Examples:

• Jimmy Dean Gift Exchange: The company hosted a virtual recipe exchange, requesting consumers to submit pictures of holiday recipes featuring Jimmy Dean sausage in exchange for their choice of six irreverent gifts, including knit sausage socks, glass-blow Jimmy Dean sausages and sausage-scented wrapping paper.
• General Mills Retro Game Night: General Mills partnered with Target to add fun to the table through a family game night. By purchasing three qualifying items, shoppers were rewarded with $5 Target digital gift cards they could use toward the purchase of a retro board game. Shoppers could purchase the participating products at Target.com’s online General Mills store.​

Learn more about how gift with purchase loyalty amplifiers engage your loyalty program members.

User-Generated Content

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content (UGC) is any form of content, including texts, photos, audio, images or video that is voluntarily created by individuals and shared in blog posts, on social media, brand pages, podcasts and review sites. 

UGC can be shared among your customers via photos, videos or any forum that allows feedback. It also helps you identify your brand advocates which can lead to some of them authoring testimonials.

Loyalty goals that UGC helps your brand achieve:

• Encourage brand advocacy: Seventy-eight percent of consumers would refer a brand’s loyalty program to friends and/or family in exchange for an incentive. Also, 93% of consumers trust content created by customers more than content created by brands.

Examples of User-Generated Content:

• Hannaford 2020 Graduate Contest: Hannaford offered this loyalty amplifier for 2020 graduates due to their resilience during the pandemic. Hannaford asked 2020 graduates to upload a 30-second video message of encouragement to their future selves for a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize or one of five $500 first prizes. The original video submissions were featured on the brand’s website in a public gallery so everyone could share in the positivity.    

• Capital One Bank #SHAREMYSAVE: This loyalty amplifier wanted to change the social conversation around National Savings Day and celebrate the meaningful things people save. To participate, consumers shared photos of items they’ve been saving and a description of why they are so special to them for a chance to win weekly prizes of $500, or the $10,000 grand prize.

Learn how user-generated content can help turn your loyalty program members into brand advocates.

Social Media Incentives

What are Social Media Incentives?

Social media incentives are creative offers you can use to amplify your loyalty program by stimulating conversation and engagement with your customers. The more members talk about your brand, the more advocates you will acquire.

Social media incentives include semi-unique codes on your social channels that can be entered on your loyalty program site to earn points, providing alerts for engaged loyalty program members about rewards drops and sharing on social.

Loyalty goals that social media incentives help your brand achieve:

Encourage brand advocacy: Consider that 77% of consumers are likely to provide a brand/product testimonial or review if they receive an incentive (e.g., the chance to win a prize, receive a discount or get bonus points). Also, 56% of consumers are likely to share an experience with a brand by tagging the brands they shop with on their social media accounts in exchange for loyalty program points.

Examples of Social Media Incentives:

• Starbucks #SAVOURYOURWEEKEND: This amplifier aimed to advocate a new partnership with Ace Bakery and menu pairings. Customers shared their favorite Starbucks drinks and Ace Bakery brunch item pairings on Instagram with #SavourYourWeekend for a chance to win a weekend resort getaway.

• IHG Rewards Club – Priceless Experiences Await: This amplifier generated authentic consumer endorsements of the brand via its social media channels. In partnership with Mastercard, IHG Rewards Club members shared their respective stories and posted photos of their favorite travel memories for a chance to win one of four curated Priceless Experience vacation packages.

Learn more about how social media incentives can boost your loyalty program engagement.

Loyalty Amplifiers Can Separate Your Program from the Competition

Using loyalty amplifiers is a great way to differentiate your loyalty program, increase engagement and separate your brand from your competitors.

Many loyalty programs look and seem similar. Adding loyalty amplifiers to your loyalty program can help you achieve loyalty goals like customer retention, customer acquisition, customer education, increased engagement, increased sales and creating more brand advocates.

If you want to learn more about how major brands are using loyalty amplifiers to achieve their loyalty goals, check out our recent loyalty amplifiers webinar on-demand.